Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building. From the 18th year of Herod, from which we are to date this building work of his, until this time, was just a period of 46 years (Josephus, Ant.
xv. 11. 1). The word х oikodomeethee (G3618)] is rightly rendered 'was in building,' by a special application of the tense-the same tense being similarly used by the Septuagint in Ezra 5:16, where the sense is manifestly the same as here.
And wilt thou rear it up in three days?